asked the Minister for Education if he will state why and when the Bailechiaragain School (Number 13127) was removed from the list of schools scheduled as being in the Fíor-Ghaeltacht; in what way the children, teachers, and parents are affected by such removal; what examination was carried out in the district before such removal; the total number of houses in the district, and the number and percentage of these in which Irish is the natural language of the home; the total number of school children and the number and percentage of these who speak only Irish in the home; and the number of children coming from homes where Irish is not spoken.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Bailechiaragain National School.
Bailechiaragain National School was removed, as from 1st July, 1945, from the list of schools scheduled under Rule 121 (1) of the Rules and Regulations for National Schools as situate in the Fíor-Ghaeltacht. From that date school children of the district were not eligible for participation in any schemes devised solely for the benefit of Fíor-Ghaeltacht pupils and the teachers were ineligible for grants paid under Rule 121 (1).
The school was removed from the list after examination of the results of the investigation of applications for the £2 grant in the school years 1941-42 to 1944-45. Since the grant is given in respect of these children only, in whose homes Irish is the everyday language, I am satisfied that the results of the investigation of applications for the £2 grant reflect the extent to which Irish is used as the language of the home in any district.
The use of Irish in the homes of children attending the school is the primary factor in deciding whether or not a school should be scheduled as a Fíor-Ghaeltacht school and for this purpose it was not necessary to ascertain the number of houses in the district or the number of those in which Irish is spoken; what the Department required was information as to the number of homes in which there are children attending school and the number of these in which Irish is the language of the home. From inquiries made it appears that the number of houses in the Bailechiaragain school-district in which there are school-children is 21; the number of these in which Irish is the home-language is nine (percentage 43 per cent.); the total number of school-children from the school-district attending Bailechiaragain school is 55 and Irish is the home-language of 22 (40 per cent.); the number of children coming from homes where Irish is not the home-language is 33.